1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cab passenger space-maintaining structure capable of maintaining or keeping a passenger space in a cab of a cab-over type(forward control) vehicle at above a predetermined level upon application of an external force due to a collision or the like.
2. Related art
In the case of a cab-over type vehicle in which a power plant is mounted under a cab, when an external force acts on a front side of the cab upon collision or the like, the front side of the cab is deformed, and also, in some cases, the power plant, including an engine and a transmission, moves forward because of the inertia force to deform the rear side of the cab, thereby narrowing a passenger space provided before the collision. Therefore, in the prior art, various means have been used in order to reduce the degree of deformation of the cab. For example, the cab itself was reinforced, and a reinforcing member was mounted on a frame, and various cushioning means were provided for absorbing an impact energy.
Although the conventional passenger space-maintaining structures have their respective features, and are effective, each of these structures uses some reinforcing member or the like, and therefore has problems that the cost is high and that the weight is increased.